Stop insulting voters by stupid remarks: Bobby Jindal tells partymen

PTI|

Nov 19, 2012, 03.54 PM IST

WASHINGTON: Criticising the Republican party and its defeated presidential nominee Mitt Romney, Indian- American governor Bobby Jindal has said that leaders should stop insulting voters by saying "stupid" things.

"We don't need to demonise --and we also don't need to be saying stupid things. Look, we had candidates in Indiana and Missouri that said offensive things that only hurt themselves and lost those Senate seats, but also have hurt the Republican Party across the board," Louisiana's governor Jindal said.

"We're going to go and convince and fight for every single vote, showing them we are the party for the middle class, upward mobility. We don't start winning majorities and winning elections by insulting our voters," he said.

"So, I think we can be true to our principles. We don't need to pander or change our principles, but at the same time, we can be respectful," Jindal told the Fox News.

"I'm pro-life. I follow the teachings of my church and my faith. But at the same time, I think we can respect those who disagree with us. We don't need to demonise those who disagree with us. We need to respect the fact that others have come to different conclusions based on their own sincerely held beliefs and have a civil debate," he said in response to a question on pro-life and women.

Unmarried women voted for Barack Obama by a margin of 67 per cent to 31 per cent, during the presidential elections.

Post election, Jindal has been seen critical of Mitt Romney, the Republican presidential candidate.

"If we want people to like us, we have to like them first. And, you don't start to like people by insulting them and saying their votes were bought. We are an aspirational party," Jindal said responding to Romney's remarks that he lost because Obama bought votes of the targeted groups.

"Let the Democratic Party be the party that says demography is destiny, that says we are not going to divide people by race, by gender, by class. We as a Republican Party, believe our conservative principles are good for every single voter. It's not just a marketing campaign. It's not just having better PR folks," Jindal said.

41-year-old Jindal, a rising star of the party, is seen by many as a 2016 presidential candidate for the Republican Party.